The Lion is Down
by David Samuel McCalmont
No one is Fired for Catastrophic Failure
Whatever happened to "falling on your sword" in the aftermath of a catastrophic failure? This practice in the public's mind is most often associated with the Japanese and corporate milieu, but it was also once a practice that occurred in our leadership environment, too. It's called responsibility and accountability. You fail, you go!
We have a (double) D.E.I. hire (Kimberly Cheatle is in a gay marriage) running the Secret Service within the Department of Homeland Security bureaucracy. Ms. Cheatle graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a sociology (not a criminal justice) degree in 1992. Not much is known of her career until she applied for a job with the Secret Service in 1995 and was accepted in the Clinton administration. Cheatle climbed the career ladder until she was assigned to protecting Vice-President Biden and his family soon after President Barack Obama took office. It was during these eight years that Cheatle came under the watchful eye of Jill "not-yet-Dr." Biden.
Not wanting to work under Donald Trump's political appointees, Cheatle resigned. Her resumé got her hired as Director of Security for PepsiCo. As corporations were coming under greater regulatory pressure and scrutiny from Washington, D.C., and expected to accommodate themselves to the needs and demands of the reigning political classes, Cheatle's PepsiCo hiring could be construed as an affirmative action one. When Joe Biden upset the reelection prospects of Donald Trump in 2020, the D.E.I. (Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!) juggernaut broke into a full gallop. The 3,000 political appointees were to include as few white middle-aged straight males as possible.
Kim Cheatle Favored by Jill Biden
Several sources told The New York Post that Ms. Cheatle was the favorite choice of Dr. Biden and her trusted henchman-advisor Anthony Bernal for the juicy Secret Service Director's slot, which did not require a Senate confirmation in a hostile Capitol Hill environment. In August 2022, she became the second woman to head the exclusive agency.
Is she qualified for the assignment of Director of a zero-fail agency? This is not the U.S. Post Office. One fatal lapse of protocol could alter world history. Most of Cheatle's public pronouncements revolve around gender and diversity issues. Meritocracy doesn't appear in her top ten job-related concerns. It's apparent Ms. Cheatle becomes easily bored with the messy details of keeping the agency's clients alive. But then, for what other purpose does the Secret Service exist?
A Democrat Party insider pointed out that Bernal had no national security or law enforcement experience and shouldn’t have had influence over the selection of the USSS director. Yet, Bernal was said to be the second most powerful insider with influence over departmental hirings under Joe Biden. Giving him extra muscle at the White House was his pathological commitment to D.E.I. and C.R.T. (Critical Race Theory). He was totally onboard "the human resources practice of attempting to ensure diversity in the workplace" at the expense of competence and merit.
No-Fail Mission Fails
Kentucky Republican Congressman Jim Comer complained that "The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission; yet it failed (last) Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate (former) President Trump, killed an innocent victim and harmed others." New York City Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino wrote online that "In a nation with the finest military, Special Forces, and security services the world has ever known, Biden appoints a female D.E.I. hire from PepsiCo as the director of our Secret Service. Not a former Army Ranger, not a Navy SEAL, not even a longtime S.S. agent with decades of experience...a woman who did corporate security for PepsiCo... Pure appointments of wildly unqualified individuals like this have grave consequences for our nation, and [July 13th's] assassination attempt proves it. Get these people out of government."
Radio talk show host Dan Bongino, a former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, called the Secret Service's performance a "catastrophic failure and no excuses should be made or even attempted. The failures are profound, and questions must be answered about ground surveillance, air surveillance, post-stander support and counter-sniper advance work and response. We have one job, and we came within inches of a deadly failure... An uneventful failure is not a success."
It takes a couple weeks in advance to scope out an outdoor venue. Meanwhile, the agency is stretched thin with a NATO summit conference and two upcoming national political conventions. The Secret Service is forced to use "supplemental protective personnel" to fill the gaps. To translate: other Department of Homeland Security agents and local law enforcement people with little to no training or experience in personal protective security procedures.
Focused on Ideology and Gender
To illustrate the grotesque shortcomings of an agency more focused on ideological gender, racial, and affirmative action concerns, we are faced with a scenario where "supplemental" personnel were stationed inside a building supposedly outside the S.S. security perimeter but whose rooftop provided an unhindered sight line to the podium where the former president would be speaking.
"Assets" were positioned inside the very building which the killer was able to access the roof with a ladder he had purchased at The Home Depot near his hometown of Bethel Park, PA that morning. All this in broad daylight with people roaming around and even noticing a man with a rifle climbing up on a roof-top with a straight 140-yard cake shot to the speaker's podium. The roof had not been cleared beforehand and did not appear to have been monitored. This is an egregious weakness in the "supplemental" protective approach for which someone at the top should fall on her sword.
Kimberly Cheatle has mouthed the words of responsibility by saying of herself, "the buck stops here.” But she doesn't believe that. "As director,” she says, “I take full responsibility" for the breakdown in developing and carrying out the very detailed protocols associated with scoping out in advance the security weak points in any outdoor venue for a presidential candidate.
She had already rejected requests for increased S.S. "assets" for Donald Trump and went so far as to deny protection for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West. Her actions have politicized a non-political agency. Cheatle made it clear from the get-go that bringing the female portion of the agency up to 30% was her biggest priority. Carrying out the agency's "core function" seemed secondary.
Former agents and other security experts decried the response of female agents on Trump's detail in Butler, PA. Many of these hires are affirmative action and not rooted in meritocracy. Kimberly Cheatle is going to face these accusations from Republicans in hearings next week in the House.
But like many left-wing cogs in a Woke machine, catastrophic failure in the line of duty is no reason to "fall on your sword." After all, the purpose in leadership is to represent the revolution, not to carry out non-revolutionary duties which to them appear so retro – a harkening back to the old days of patriarchy and oppression of anybody who's downwind on the C.R.T. transactional chart.
Director Cheatle doesn’t have to “fall on her sword.”
She should simply be fired.
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This is an excellent article! I would push back just a little, this was not an "uneventful failure" this was a disaster, a good man is dead, two others severely injured and the culture of death came close to achieving their goal of sowing the seeds of discord that puts us on the brink of civil war. This should be the nail in the coffin of DEI hires, but with the brainwashed left not only are they none-the-wiser, they most likely see this DEI hire as a major success and proof that we ought to hire based on skin color and sexual activity instead of character, competence and virtue. The MSM says this poor kid acted alone, do you believe them? Welcome to WOKE America!
I was struck by the statement that Cheatle resigned from the Secret Service and left to run Security at Pepsico, rather than continue in the Trump Administration. That is troubling. Imagine if all our first responders considered political affiliation before coming to a citizen's aid. A stain on the Secret Service. At least, finally, a security detail will be extended to RFK Jr. A candidate who lost a father and uncle to assassins' bullets. That decision -- not to give a viable presidential candidate protection -- that should be investigated, too.